Solid Cactus®, an award-winning web design company and total solutions e-commerce provider, announced that it added 75 jobs in 2007 and predicts more robust growth for the year ahead.
2007 HIGH POINTS;
Job Creation: Solid Cactus ended the 2007 calendar year with 135 employees, more than doubling the 64 employees with which it started the year. In late ’07 the company announced plans to move its headquarters to Shavertown, PA in February of ’08. The Wilkes-Barre office will become the headquarters for the company’s virtual office division, operating a call center to outsource client service solutions for clients nationwide. The increasing demand for outsourced customer service will see 75 to 100 new hires in 2008. Departments moving to the new Shavertown corporate headquarters will have over 100 new employees within the next 18 months, taking the total number of employees by the end of 2009 to nearly 400.
High Tech = High Pay: The Solid Cactus annual payroll more than tripled in 2007, increasing from $1.2 million in 2006 to $3.7 million last year. The average annual salary of a Solid Cactus employee is $36,000, far above the median household income reported by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Milestones: 2007 was a year of accolades and announcements for Solid Cactus, the most notable include:
- Listed as the 255th fastest growing privately held company and the 28th fastest growing IT Services company in the United States by Inc. Magazine.
- Named one of the “Best Places to Work in PA 2007” for the second year in a row by the Team Pennsylvania Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community & Economic Development, the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry and the Central Penn Business Journal.
- In February Solid Cactus released FeedPerfect™, its first original proprietary software. FeedPerfect monitors and helps to manage the Comparison Shopping Engine advertising campaigns of e-commerce web sites. FeedPerfect was 18 months in development at Solid Cactus. Since its release, FeedPerfect has generated over $4 million in sales for users.
- April saw the launch of eBiz Insider™, a magazine produced by Solid Cactus with content focusing on e-commerce trends and e-commerce business advice. Each month the magazine is sent to 17,000 subscribers.
- Solid Cactus clients now comprise 5.4% of the Internet’s Top 500 retailers – more than any other design firm. This is according to the 2007 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide.
- The Solid Cactus newsletter design received an APEX Award of Excellence in the Education and Training category.
- Received 5 Communicator Awards for the Solid Cactus trade show booth, printed presentations and t-shirt designs.
- Launched the “Solid Cactus Cares Fund” where Solid Cactus employees, clients and business partners are encouraged to donate to worthy charities. Solid Cactus matches all employee-deducted donations dollar for dollar.
2008 Plans:
- Moving the corporate headquarters to the former Westmoreland Elementary School in Shavertown beginning in February. When the move is complete, the building will be renamed the “Solid Cactus Technology Center @ Westmoreland”.
- Keeping the downtown Wilkes-Barre location and expanding its virtual office offerings at that location.
- Launching a beta version of “Project Mayhem” in late January to a limited client base. This Software as a Service (SaaS) product has been in development for over a year and is expected to be a significant source of revenue. Details of “Project Mayhem” will be announced at a later date.
- Creating a product development team that will continually introduce new and innovative e-commerce features that can easily be incorporated into new or existing webstores.